Bulletin #2

February 2, 2007

Starting a discussion on infrastructure needs

House and Senate getting organized
Bill deadlines
Anti-annexation bills introduced
Constitutional amendment proposed on eminent domain
Property tax exemption for 'endangered manufacturers'
Opportunity to address smoking preemption
Hazardous materials recommendations

Other bills of interest (see Bill Summaries for details)

  Promote Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency
  Tort Claims Limit Increased
  Recovery of Costs in Civil Cases
  Incorporate Corolla
  Expand Safe Zones/Schools, Parks, Child Centers
  Kill Police Animal

This early in the session, the list of issues up for serious legislative consideration is very long but that list is going to narrow rapidly. Whether local infrastructure needs are going to make the short list depends, to a significant degree, on what we do right now. Please initiate discussions with your legislators about municipal infrastructure needs including water, sewer and transportation. Last week's Legislative Bulletin included more details and cities and towns will receive additional information shortly.

House and Senate getting organized

Although bills are starting to flow into the process, most House and Senate committees and committee chairs have not been announced. Work on bills won't really start until the committees are fully operating. The House adopted temporary rules, including one prohibiting blank bills, and the Senate adopted its permanent rules.

Bill deadlines

The deadline for submitting local bills to Legislative Bill Drafting is Feb. 27 for the Senate and March 20 for the House. Deadlines for introduction of local bills are one week after each drafting deadline. The crossover deadline is May 17. By this date a bill must pass one body to remain eligible for consideration. Bills required to go to the Finance or Appropriation Committees are exempt from this deadline.

Anti-annexation bills introduced

Rep. Larry Brown of Forsyth County has introduced HB 32 - Suspend Involuntary Annexations to prohibit cities and towns from beginning or continuing any city-initiated annexations until a legislative study commission submits a report to the 2009 General Assembly.  The commission would study whether current statutes provide adequate protection to property owners. HB 56 - Annexation Service (Reps. Larry Brown, Joe Boylan and Bill Faison) would prohibit city-initiated annexation of any area that already receives substantial urban services, defined as water and sewer provided by a municipality, county, sanitary district, water and sewer authority or other unit of government; and fire and police protection and road maintenance provided by an association with a governing board elected by its membership (services can be provided directly by the association or by contract). HB 60 - Moore Annexation Referendum (Rep. Joe Boylan) making annexations in Moore County subject to a referendum upon petition of 10 percent of the voters in the proposed annexation area. The League opposes all of these bills, although we do not oppose additional study of the issue.

Constitutional amendment proposed on eminent domain

Sen. Fred Smith has introduced SB 38 - Eminent Domain , which would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2008 to prohibit the use of eminent domain for economic development. The League believes that state law (as amended and clarified last session) adequately addresses the issue by expressly prohibiting the use of eminent domain for general economic development purposes. The legislature has the ability to further tighten or clarify these statutes if need be. Our concern with a constitutional amendment that does not clearly define economic development purposes is that it could easily result in unintended consequences (such as preventing local governments from building roads and water and sewer infrastructure). Once in place, a constitutional amendment would be very difficult to change.

Property tax exemption for "endangered manufacturers"

HB 39 - Endangered Manufacturing and Jobs Act , sponsored by Reps. Walter Church and Maggie Jeffus, would provide several enhanced economic development incentives to manufacturers of apparel, furniture and textiles. Unfortunately, among these is a complete exclusion from the property tax. The League's core principles recognize that sound municipal government requires preservation and enhancement of the existing tax and revenue structure. We must oppose any portion of the bill that erodes the local property tax base.

Opportunity to address smoking preemption

Two bills to prohibit smoking in state government buildings have been introduced. HB 24 - Smoking in State Govt. Buildings/Prohibition (Reps. Jennifer Weiss and Rick Glazier) and SB 43 - Smoking in State Govt. Buildings/Prohibition (Sen. Bill Purcell) present an excellent opportunity to raise the issue of local governments' authority to restrict smoking in local facilities. Under existing state law, local governments are required to set aside 20 percent of the interior space of government buildings for smoking areas. The League's core principles oppose the preemption of municipal authority and we will seek to restore local autonomy.

Hazardous materials recommendations

Legislation has been recommended by the Governor's Hazardous Materials Task Force, formed in the wake of a hazardous waste disposal plant fire in Apex that forced the evacuation of 17,000 residents. League Executive Director Ellis Hankins served on the task force and worked to remove state preemption and to increase local protections. We are pleased that the proposed legislation includes many of our suggested changes.

HB 36 - Haz. Materials Task Force Recommendations (Reps. Jennifer Weiss, Deborah Ross, Ty Harrell and Nelson Dollar) would remove the automatic state preemption of local ordinances that place restrictions on the siting of hazardous waste facilities so long as the primary purpose of the ordinance is to protect public health, safety, or the environment. Local ordinances are presumed to be valid unless the Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources makes specific findings to the contrary. It requires permit applicants for hazardous waste facilities to seek input from local government and emergency response agencies on their contingency plans for the facilities and to periodically verify that the resources and equipment of each local government and emergency response agency are available and adequate to respond to an emergency at the facility. It requires operators of commercial hazardous waste facilities to maintain off-site copies of information concerning the quantity, type, location and hazards of the waste at the facility in a way that is accessible to local government and emergency response agencies. Applicants must notify property owners within one-fourth mile of the proposed facility and provide them information regarding the types of waste and the planned response to emergencies. Permits are to be subject to renewal at least every five years, and the state, when determining the frequency of inspections, must consider any changes in sensitive land use or population density within one-fourth mile of the facility. Facilities must provide security and surveillance at the facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week and maintain an on-site wind monitor. They must provide financial assurance for cleanup of accidental releases. The bill also clarifies that municipal 911 data has the same confidentiality afforded to county 911 data under the public records law, and expressly grants confidentiality to "reverse 911" systems. It provides for additional review of the building code and fire inspection process, development of a state plan for public health response to hazardous contamination events, development of a state database of sites with hazardous chemicals, and ongoing study of commercial hazardous waste facility fires.

Using the General Assembly website

If you need to know the status of a bill, read the text of a bill, or find out who is on a committee.if you need to know how to reach your legislator.if you need to know what the House or Senate will be considering during a particular daily session.the General Assembly website makes this information and readily available at www.ncleg.net .

Bill Summaries

Following are some of the bills that were introduced or acted upon this week. If you need a copy of these or any other bills, please contact the Legislative Printed Bills Office at 919-733-5648 or the League office. Remember that bills and legislative calendars are now available on the Internet at http://www.ncleg.net . Please contact the League staff if you have any particular interest or concern regarding any piece of legislation.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Bill:    SB 3 - PROMOTE RENEWABLE ENERGY/ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Sponsors:   Albertson (D10)
Summary:   Makes each electric power supplier (including municipalities that sell to retail electric power customers) subject to a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. For 2009, at least 1% of the total electric power in kilowatt hours sold by an electric power supplier to its retail customers during the previous calendar year must be supplied by new renewable energy facilities or saved by implementation of energy efficiency measures. The percentage increases annually until it reaches 10%.

Status:   Filed in the Senate

GENERAL GOVERNMENT

Bill:    HB 22 - TORT CLAIMS LIMIT INCREASED
Sponsors:   Walend (R113)
Summary:   Increases state tort claims limit from $500,000 to $1 million.
Status:   House Committee On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

Bill:    SB 12 - RECOVERY OF COSTS IN CIVIL CASES
Sponsors:   Boseman (D9)
Summary:   Adds to the list of costs that a court may allow in its discretion the following: mediator fees, reasonable and necessary expenses for stenographic and videographic assistance directly related to the taking of depositions and for deposition transcripts, and reasonable and necessary fees of expert witnesses for actual time spent providing testimony at trial, deposition or other proceedings.
Status:   Filed in the Senate

INCORPORATIONS

Bill:    HB 2 - INCORPORATE COROLLA
Sponsors:   Owens (D1)
Status:   House Committee On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
Summary:   Incorporates the Village of Corolla in Currituck County , subject to a referendum not less than 60 nor later than 120 days after the act becomes law. Prohibits the council from increasing the ad valorem tax rate more than 5¢ per $100 valuation above the rate initially established after incorporation without the vote or consent of a majority of the qualified voters.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Bill:    SB 8 - EXPAND SAFE ZONES/SCHOOLS, PARKS, CHILD CTRS
Sponsors:   Boseman (D9)
Summary:   Increases the "safe zones" near child care centers and school grounds regarding illegal drug sales from 300 to 1,000 feet. Expands the safe zone for public parks to include all public parks, not just those with playgrounds and increases distance to 1,000 feet. Makes it a criminal offense to possess or carry a gun in a public park, any child care center, or on any playground.
Status:   Filed in the Senate

Bill:    SB 34 - KILL POLICE ANIMAL

Sponsors:  Swindell (D11)
Summary:  Makes it a Class H felony to willfully kill or attempt to kill a law enforcement or assistance animal and makes it an aggravating circumstance for other criminal offenses that such an animal was seriously harmed or killed while engaged in performing official duties.
Status:   Filed in the Senate

How do you want to receive your Legislative Bulletin?

Beginning last session, we streamlined the Legislative Bulletin and moved to electronic (e-mail) distribution. We no longer send individual hard copies by regular mail unless specifically requested to do so (see below). We made this change to save on printing and postage costs and to speed up the distribution of important legislative information.

To have your name included on the Legislative Bulletin electronic distribution list, send an e-mail to leaguebulletin@nclm.org. Be sure to give us your name, title, municipality and e-mail address. If you have already sent us your name and email, do not do so again.

We will continue, for the present, to mail one hard copy to each member municipality. That copy will be mailed to a municipal staff member who can then take responsibility for copying and distributing it to other officials.

If you want to continue to receive an individual hard copy of the Legislative Bulletin by regular mail, please fill out the request form below and return it to the League. If you have filled out the form below before, do not send it in again. Thank you for your interest in the Legislative Bulletin.

Request for Mailed Copy of Legislative Bulletin

I do not have e-mail or do not want to receive the NCLM Legislative Bulletin by e-mail. Please mail my copy to:

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Fax to 919-733-9519 or mail to NCLM, P.O. Box 3069, Raleigh, NC 27603.

S. Ellis Hankins, Executive Director

Andrew L. Romanet, Jr., General Counsel